Letter: Healthy food from sustainable farms

I was glad to read in the Dec. 8 issue about Johnson County's new solar array for clean energy ('Turning up solar power”).

It's not surprising that a recent study found Johnson is one of six counties in Iowa with high levels of organic agriculture. People can shop at the New Pioneer Co-op, the Iowa Valley Cooperative and Farmers' Markets and even grocery stores for organic food.

From that vantage it might not be obvious that 99 percent of Iowa's ag land is in industrial production of corn and soybeans. Sixty percent of Iowa's farm land is rented by farm operators who patch together tracts of up to 10,000 acres to produce corn and soybeans for the ravenous markets that feed the factories that produce corn sweeteners and oil and soy protein and convert them into pastries, chips, sodas, and other industrial food substitutes. This provides absent landowners a steady stream of income while the quality of our soil and water deteriorate and suburban development bids up the price of farmland.

The Sustainable Iowa Land Trust, SILT, is a nonprofit organization that was formed two years ago to protect land for producing healthy food on sustainable farms through donated farms and easements that restrict land use to sustainable practices. You can learn more at SILT.org.

The new Johnson County solar array is one step toward clean energy. SILT is offering solutions to the complex problems of clean and environmentally responsible food. I hope you will learn more and support the organization.

E. Paul Durrenberger

Professor Emeritus, Anthropology, Penn State, University of Iowa

West Branch